Our lifestyles mean that most of us aren’t using our muscles properly. As small children we squat, crawl and leap around freely, but the older we get, the more 【小题1】 our movements become and many of our muscles get little action as we sit at desks or in cars. Occasionally we hit the gym, where we use machines to work on specific muscles rather than the whole body. Now a new form of fitness, a(n) 【小题2】 workout based on simple animal movements such as crawling, is taking off. Its Australian founder, Nathan Helberg, has been using it with the military police forces, schoolchildren and even prisoners. He took his 【小题3】 from martial arts break-dancing, the animal world and the dance movements of indigenous people, and developed Zuu.

There are around 100 animal movements although beginners start with 25-that work muscles, joints and ligaments as well as improving heart and lung fitness. Zuu needs no 【小题4】 and little space. The idea is to train your body to do the kinds of activities that our 【小题5】 had to do in daily life. It’s quick, it tops up your strength and it’s not aiming to give you big muscles. In exchange for the publicity from article, Nathan offers me a master class alongside two of his trainers, which would otherwise be beyond my 【小题6】 means! I am attracted by the prospect of doing things I haven’t done since my pre-school years.

In class, I try a frog squat and a bear crawl. Each movement lasts for 30 seconds (for my benefit-as you get fitter, you keep on for 45 seconds). By the end I’m 【小题7】 with exhaustion. Despite my initial 【小题8】, by the end of my class, I have started to enjoy myself. Mind you, it’s hard not to laugh when you’re 【小题9】 a bear! I thought I was in reasonably good shape-I run 5 km three times a week-but after this I realize how little I 【小题10】 myself normally. Nathan has promised that I could increase my upper body strength by 30% in just six weeks by doing classes. Doesn’t that sound amazing?

Competitive Sports and Mass Sports

Soccer, boxing, badminton, marathon, skiing, gymnastics and track and field, there seem to be hundreds of sports for us. In stadiums, gyms, or homes, we can work out 【小题1】all over. Competitive sports mean that athletes must compete against each other for medals in championships or Olympics to win 【小题2】and glory for their country, which needs not only skills and strength but also great 【小题3】. However, success often comes along with stress, failure and injuries. Sometimes even a master will fall apart, but he never loses heart. Finally, he makes it and becomes a legend.【小题4】with competitive sports, mass sports focus on fitness 【小题5】 competition. Millions of people go jogging or do push-ups to keep slim instead of going on diet by cutting out fat. However, with no audience to shout encouragement, they may give up. They cheat themselves into taking exercise the next day or 【小题6】to have done it otherwise, which doesn’t make sense. However, even if you take exercise now and then, it will make a difference and have 【小题7】effects, won’t it?

Sometimes it’s the simplest daily practice that can have the biggest impact on your health, and yoga is proof of that. Although most forms of yoga aren’t considered to be as intense as other workout regimens, practising yoga on a daily basis has been scientifically demonstrated to help you mentally and 【小题1】. Through breath work, meditation and holding poses that increase strength and 【小题2】the body and mind gain benefits from yoga that positively impact your long-term health. It’s no 【小题3】people have been practising yoga for over 5000 years, and that the number of Australians practising yoga doubled between 2008 and 2017 to over two million, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Yoga teacher, Jenni Tarmar, shares, “we have a 【小题4】of research demonstrating that a regular mindfulness practice - the act of paying attention to the sensation in the body, thoughts and emotions without judgment - can reduce stress and help us to feel calmer, more productive, and 【小题5】more even-keeled in our daily lives.”

After evaluating yoga history and research, one 2014 review published in Frontiers in Human Neouroscience concluded that 【小题6】yoga practice can help facilitate self-regulation. Another study of adolescents between the ages of 13 and 18 found that practising yoga positively benefited emotional regulation and self-esteem. “Movement releases beneficial neurotransmitters (神经转发器) in the brain, which helps us feel good as well as assist in 【小题7】regulation,” says yoga instructor, Evan Lawrence. “One of the things that I like about yoga specifically is that there is, at the same time, a focus on physical movement and 【小题8】.”

According to associate professor of psychiatry, Dr Gail Saltz, “practising yoga improves overall blood 【小题9】to the body, including the brain, which is helpful for cognition and memory.”

One 2019 review published in Brain Plasticity concluded that behavioural interventions like yoga can help “mitigate age-related and neurodegenerative decline” due to the positive effects a daily practice has on different parts of the 【小题10】brain, like the hippocampus (which plays a major role in learning and memory) and the prefrontal cortex (cognitive control functions).